Running out of options... 6 month battle with RI

[RaltsXIV]

Cliffs: Conventional treatment for this snake hasn't worked. Baytril, amikacin, and tylan 200 weren't effective. Options?

I'm running out of options with my granite's battle with a vicious RI.

My granite female began to snifflle a bit in late february. She was instantly quarantined, humidity was raised to 70%, temps went up from 88 to 92. A couple of weeks later she showed almost no signs of RI. Late march, on feeding day, I was debating returning her to the female rack but when I got to her tub to feed her she was not in good condition. She was in midshed, deep in blue. I must have ticked her off and she hissed, blowing mucus and sounding horrible. It sounded like someone with a mouthful of mayo trying to yell at the sky.

I made her a vet appointment as soon as possible which was in early april. I spent the next week freaking out that I was going to wake up to a dead snake, but her symptoms all but disappeared up until the day of the vet appointment. The vet said she looked great, better than most snakes he ses in his office. She barely made a peep as far as noise was concerned and he said he'd most likely keep her for a week and run baytril as alot of the snakes he'd seen lately had turned out to have bacteria infections vunerable to baytril.

I called to check up on her a week later and was told he'd switched to amikacin, as she still had a bit of a sniffle after the baytril, and he'd call back with any significant changes. I couldn't get ahold of the vet for a bit after that but recieved a call a week later saying she'd most likely come home in another week because he switched to a higher dose of baytril. That put her at the vet for a grand total of a lil over a month.

While she was at the vet my male cinnamon developed a sniffle( he was still in the quarantine room and had been there even before the granite became ill). I decided to nebulize tylan 200, versus take him to the vet, since the granite's RI seemed resistant to amikacin and baytril. Two weeks later the cinnamon was clear of symptoms but remained in QT.

I went to pick her up late-may, she looked great but still had a bit of a sniffle. The vet said to give her warm baths for the next week or so to help her move the last bits of congestion out and she'd be fine. I was skeptical but agreed.

I got her home and put her back in the QT room. I moved to cinnamon to a seperate room before bringing the granite home for safety. I continued to follow the vets advice for 2 weeks. I gave warm baths once a day, kept her humidity at 70% and her temp elevated to 92. She still had a sniffle and I could still feel congestion in her chest. I decided to pursue the same route that I had taken with the cinnamon (who was still symptom free at this point in freaking june) since it worked for him and nebulize tylan.

A month later, July, the cinnamon was still symptom free.... my granite still had this god forsaken RI, after amikacin, baytril, and tylan 200. I decided to switch up my tactics and see if lowering the humidity would help. Two weeks later after symptoms began to fade they showed right back up. I gave up and resumed elevated humidty at 70% ..and an odd shed happened. The skin between her eyes an nostrils shed before the rest of her skin and contained pigment....her skin under her jaw looked odd. Her skin was breaking down. After watching her I found she had found a place in her tub where she was wedging her head and attempting to escape. She was in one of those purple latching 32 qt tubs from target, they have 2 places on either side of the handle where small rounded corners poke out. She had abraded her own jaw and forehead. I became vigilant at preventing this from becoming infected and dropped the humidity back to 50%. I cut to corners off and melted the areas down to smooth them.

So now I sit here, cinnamon cleared QT and the granite is still there. She's about to go into shed and her forehead looks like it got worse. The skin is not infected but isn't healing as fast as I'd hoped. The RI is just as bad as when i first noticed it. She's not mouth breathing, she doesn't blow bubbles, her mouth has clear mucus when opened, and I can feel congestion in her chest when handling her. I'm out of options and six months of QT procedures and sterilizing procedures are becoming tedious. I think my only option is to get a culture but the only herp vet here is the one she's already been to. I'm not sure I have faith that the culture and treatment can be done while making sure I'm posted on progress how I would like to be and her forehead/jaw injury can be keep uninfected so it can heal. Thoughts? lol